The Gathering Storm - Review

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The Gathering Storm (Book 12) is a fantastic debut for Brandon Sanderson in his transition to The Wheel of Time series. I think he did a great job of getting all the characters to feel true to Robert Jordan’s characterizations and he clearly knows this world since he maintains the same atmosphere, cultures, magic system, places, and overall tone that was in Jordan’s previous books. It’s easy to spot the differences in their prose but Sanderson seemed to be mimicking/paying homage to Jordan’s writing style a bit because of the descriptions of clothing/furniture and the spot-on character tendencies such as Nynaeve tugging her braid, Mat’s witty humor, Cadsuane’s regal aura, Siuan’s hilariously snappy attitude towards Gareth, and so on. If you told me this book was written by Robert Jordan, I would have believed it, other than the obvious differences in the vocabulary such as Sanderson’s repetitive use of the words “creature”, “bulwark”, etc. But the characters and the story didn’t suffer for this change in prose. In fact, this was probably my 3rd favorite book in the series so far, behind Knife of Dreams (Book 11) and The Shadow Rising (Book 4). This is a non-spoiler review and it will be covered in 4 sections: Characters, Story, Pacing, & my final thoughts along with a rating.




Image: Matrim Cauthon.


[Characters]:

Rand and Egwene were the main focus of this book, with a good handful of POV chapters going to Mat, Nynaeve, Cadsuane, and Gawyn as well. Rand’s arc in this book is a journey of self-discovery. He’s been truly broken by the events in this book, was on the brink of crossing the line and never turning back, and has to re-forge himself. It was cool to see some moments of what I call “Darth Rand”, especially because this brings an urgency and tension to the story since the Last Battle is approaching and Rand is in the worst state possible . Egwene was really good as well. She’s become a really smart and charismatic leader. She runs circles around Elaida and she completely dismantles her with just words (since she can’t channel), and it was hilariously satisfying to read. Mat is awesome as always and Cadsuane has been great the last couple of books as well. I’ve talked about my love-hate relationship with Nynaeve in this series, but I really liked her in this book.

I also enjoyed the handful of chapters Aviendha had and I’m glad she got some more character development because she’s one of the most underrated characters in the series and she’s also in my top 3 for female characters. Unfortunately, Gawyn is one of the featured POV characters in this book and he’s up there for one of the worst characters in this series overall, not just this book. Elaida is one of the worst in the series as well but she’s supposed to be hated, whereas Gawyn is just an idiot. He makes so many stupid decisions and has also built up a misinformed and unnecessary hatred for Rand, and I couldn’t stand him in this book. On the bright side, Rodel Ituralde is one of the newer characters who appeared a few books ago but he’s easily my favorite tertiary character in this series now. Sanderson did some great character work with him in such a small amount of page time.

Favorite Characters – Mat, Perrin, Aviendha, Min, & Rodel Ituralde.



Image: The Seanchan vs. Egwene.


[Story]:

Rand attempts to bring order to Arad Doman, meets with Tuon and the Seanchan for a potential truce, and goes after Graendal who is hiding somewhere in Arad Doman. Egwene continues to oppose Elaida and tries to turn more of the Aes Sedai in the White Tower to her side. Gawyn abandons the Younglings once he finds out that Egwene is held captive in the White Tower. Cadsuane continues her plans to help Rand turn back to his normal self before the Last Battle. Mat is making his way to Caemlyn while having an unexpected visitor.

As always, I loved Rand’s storyline. Rand is taking a turn for the worst and his erratic behavior made his chapters terrifyingly unpredictable, but there were some incredible moments in his storyline and every time it switched to another POV character, I just wanted to go back to Rand. Egwene’s story was really good as well and this was the only big story/character arc that Robert Jordan sadly couldn’t complete before his passing, so I’m glad that Egwene had a lot of page time in this book and that the White Tower storyline was finally resolved. I couldn’t stand Gawyn and I didn’t really care for his chapters at all. Cadsuane’s brief arc was fascinating though and I’m hoping to see more of her and the Wise Ones plans for Rand in the next book. I love Mat but I just couldn’t get into his storyline in this book, but his last 2 chapters were good. Part of that might be because I was just so excited to see Mat and Thom go to the Tower of Ghenjei and try to free Moiraine, that I just wanted this ghost village storyline to end faster and move on to Moiriane’s rescue.

The ending of this book was phenomenal, which stays true to Robert Jordan’s style as well (with him slowly building the story and suspense to a grand avalanche of an ending). This is the first Brandon Sanderson work I’m reading but I heard he was also really good at fast-paced and awesome endings, and it didn’t disappoint. There was a mind-blowing reveal in one of Egwene’s final chapters, the Battle of Tar Valon was epic, and the final chapters in general for Rand and Egwene were incredible. I won’t spoil anything by giving specific details but Egwene’s speech, Rand’s reunion with a certain character, and the Dragonmount scene in the final chapter of the book was just purely amazing.



Image: The Black Ajah Hunters (Saerin, Yukiri, Doesine, & Seaine).


[Pacing]:

This book had great pacing. The prologue started out with a bang, the chapters were consistently entertaining throughout, and the book concluded with a phenomenal finale. It never dragged for me at any moments except for most of Mat’s chapters. That whole storyline about the Hinderstap village was a little boring and it felt very out of place and not from a Wheel of Time book. Fortunately, it was only 2-3 chapters and the rest of the book + the awesome ending made up for the overall pacing of the book.


[Final Thoughts & Rating]:

The Gathering Storm is easily one of the top tier books in this series. It had a lot of crazy moments, great pacing, epic action sequences, and it continues to resolve lingering questions throughout the series. Brandon Sanderson hit it out of the park with his debut and I have faith that he will end this series in a satisfying way. I can’t believe I’ve made it to the endgame now and I’m excited to read the penultimate book in the series, Towers of Midnight ASAP.


Rating: 8.75/10


My Book Rankings: https://jaytargaryen.blogspot.com/p/b...


*My Rating System*

5 Stars (9-10): Amazing
4 Stars (7-9): Really Good to Great
3 Stars (5-7): Average to Good
2 Stars (3-5): Bad to Mediocre
1 Star (1-3): Terrible 
 
 

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